572 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 401. 



Ellsworth Pluntington, Carnegie research as- 

 sistant, and Mr. E. W. Pumpelly, with Mr. 

 S. de Brovtzine of St. Petersburg as inter- 

 preter. Mr. Richard Norton, director of the 

 American School of Classical Studies in 

 Rome, was an independent" member of the 

 party. From Baku, the great petroleum port 

 on the west coast of the Caspian, the travelers 

 crossed by steamer to Krasnovodsk May 23, 

 whence the Central Asiatic railway carried 

 them, with many stops and side excursions on 

 the way, to the end of the main line at Tash- 

 kent and to the end of a branch line at Andiz- 

 han June 26. Professor Pumpelly, with 

 Messrs. Norton and Pumpelly, then made an 

 exciirsion southeastward across the Alai range 

 and valley to Lake Karakul on the northern 

 Pamir, returning via Andizhan, Baku and 

 Constantinople, and reaching America on 

 September 4. Professor Davis and Mr. Hunt- 

 ington went northeast, crossing the western 

 Tian Shan ranges to Lake Issikul, where 

 they separated ; Professor Davis turned north- 

 ward and came home via Semipalatirsk, Omsk 

 and St. Peterburg; Mr. Huntington went 

 south to Kashgar and west to Samarkand and 

 Aschabad, where he has lately arrived and 

 where he will make his winter headquarters 

 after an excursion into northern Persia. 



The Research Laboratory of Physical 

 Chemistry at the Massachusetts Listitute of 

 Technology, the establishment of which was 

 announced in Science for June 5, 1903, was 

 opened on September 20 with a staff of eight 

 research associates and assistants and two 

 graduate scholars working under the direction 

 of Professors A. A. Noyes, H. M. Goodwin 

 and- W. R. Whitney. The following investi- 

 gations are already in progress : ' The Elec- 

 trical Conductivity of Aqueous Solutions at 

 High Temperatures (up to 306° and higher),' 

 three separate researches carried on by Dr. 

 W. D. Coolidge, Dr. H. C. Cooper and Mr. A. 

 C. Melcher ; ' The Conductivity of Fused 

 Salts,' by Mr. R. Haskell; 'Electrical Trans- 

 ference Determinations with Nitric Acid,' 

 by Mr. T. Kato ; ' The Migration and Coag- 

 ulation of Colloids,' by Dr. J. C. Blake; 'The 

 Equilibrium in Solution between Milk Sugar 



and Its Hydrate,' by Mr. C. S. Hudson; 

 ' The Dissociation-Relations of Sulphuric 

 Acid at Various Temperatures,' by Mr. M. A. 

 Stewart ; ' The Hydrolysis of Ammonium 

 Sulphide determined by Vapor Pressure Meas- 

 urements,' by Mr. C. F. Sammet. The re- 

 searches upon the conductivity of aqueous 

 solutions and upon transference are assis.ted 

 by grants made to Professor Noyes by the 

 Carnegie Institution. Besides these physico- 

 chemical investigations, work is being contin- 

 ued with the assistance of Mr. C. S. Bryan 

 in developing a new system of qualitative 

 analysis which shall include nearly all the rare 

 metallic elements. 



At the ceremonies attending the installa- 

 tion of the Rev. Dr. Gordon as principal of 

 Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., the de- 

 gree of LL.D. was conferred, among others 

 upon Dr. J. E. Creighton, professor of phi- 

 losophy at Cornell University, and Dr. Victor 

 Goldschmidt, professor of mineralogy, Heidel- 

 berg University, Germany. 



The Harvard correspondent of the Evening 

 Post states that the Hon. William H. Moody, 

 secretary of the Navy, and Mr. Gifford Pin- 

 chot, chief of the Bureau of Forestry, will 

 speak at a meeting of the members of Harvard 

 University on November 2, under the auspices 

 of the Political Club, a non-partisan organiza- 

 tion of students organized to promote interest 

 and active participation in politics on the 

 part of university men. Secretary Moody's 

 subject will be ' The Administration of the 

 Navy,' and Mr. Pinchot's ' The Opportunities 

 in the Government Scientific Departments.' 



Dr. Edgar J. Banks has been given charge 

 of the archeological excavations to be under- 

 taken near Bysmias by the University of Chi- 

 cago with the permission of the Turkish gov- 

 ernment. 



P. G. Nutting, A.B. (Stanford), Ph.D. (Cor- 

 nell), has been appointed to a position in the 

 National Bureau of Standards. 



Dr. L. Messerschmidt has been appointed 

 assistant to the director of the Royal Museum 

 in Berlin. 



